Getting Your Best Customers to Rave About Your Gym/Spa

When was the last time that you chose a restaurant to eat at or coffee shop to check out before looking at some online reviews? If you’re like most people, then you’re constantly reading reviews of products, services, and places you want to go. Your time is precious, so why should you try something that’s already been tested and rejected by other people?

Sites like Yelp have made choosing a restaurant easier than anything. Amazon has a prominent customer reviews section for each product selling on the marketplace. The business world is centered around what your customers are saying about your product or service. And pretty much everyone is checking that before making their purchase decision.

So, this begs the question. How the heck do you get these reviews for your gym or spa, other than offering great experiences?

Well, it’s easier than you might think. There are just some tips and tricks that you need to keep in mind if you want your best customers to actually tell their friends about your facility. However, hold your horses for a second. There are some important things to understand before you go and get those reviews from your customers!

There are many reasons why someone might review a company. Maybe they really loved the experience they had at your spa. Or maybe they absolutely hated the facilities at your gym. Or they might just be bored and need something to do. No matter their reasoning, you should understand why reviews are written in the first place.

By and large, the biggest reason why reviews are so popular among consumers is because reviews are seen as providing more reliable and up-to-date information regarding products or services than the information that your company puts out. The rule of thumb is that consumers are going to trust other consumers more than the company they’re buying from. So keep that in mind when leveling out the importance of reviews!

Figure out what aspects of the review are the most important.

In one study, it was actually found that the there’s a greater impact on your sales revenue from one-star reviews than five-star reviews. Think about what that means for your gym or spa. It means that you should be working on improving the experience of those negative customers, rather than focusing on getting fantastic reviews from others. Basically, these one-star or low-star reviews are your shot to engage with dissatisfied customers and improve their experience.

Another study found that most consumers are more likely to trust a mixture of positive and negative reviews about your gym or spa. Of course, you should aim to get the best review from everyone, but it’s much more authentic to consumers when they see people saying both good and bad things about your company (and you responding to those negative reviews, in kind).

One study showed that approximately 71% of consumers only trust reviews that have been added within the past six months. What does this mean for you? Well, it means that you’ve got to be continuously encouraging new reviews from your customers. The more recent the last reviews on your spa or gym are, the more consumers are going to read and trust them.

So, how do you get those rave reviews you’re craving?

Right, so now that you understand the importance of reviews and the basics surrounding them, it’s time to give you those tips we promised. Keep reading to get the information you need to get those rave reviews from your spa or gym goers.

#1. Never hound for reviews right away.

There’s no reason that you need to hound your customers as soon as they finish their spa day or gym workout to write a review. It’s much more effective for you to wait some time after their first purchase or contact to ask for a review. You can make this the responsibility of your marketing department to request reviews at regular intervals.

#2. Make writing a review super easy.

How many of you out there actually want to come up with a paragraph detailing everything about a product you liked? Not many, probably! Make it easy for your customers to write reviews by including rating tools for items like customer support, facility cleanliness, etc.

#3. Encourage your customers to actually write.

You should make sure that your customers are encouraged to write plenty of text, in addition to the rating sliders and stars. As mentioned above, more and more people are reading into the text of reviews to determine whether or not they’ll go to your gym/spa.

#4. Influential reviews and reviewers are prime.

When you’re in the early stages of building up your consumer base, go ahead and reach out to those influential reviewers on sites like Yelp and Google Reviews. You can get them to try out your spa or gym and write reviews that will have more authority. Plus, you can feature your most influential reviews on your website.

#5. Two-way is better than one-way.

Make sure to always respond to those people who review your business. No one likes a company that doesn’t respond to the content they put out about them, especially when it’s a negative review.

Now you’re ready to get out there and get some great reviews from your customers.

But wait! There’s one more way we can help you to get awesome reviews.

This is where WaveReview comes in.

Email is the best way to make sure you get 5-star reviews of your gym or spa. WaveReview gives you the automated email system and templates to get more customers to write reviews. Organic high star reviews will come flooding in with the help of WaveReview.